CMS Meaningful Use Stage 2 Proposed Rule

By Jose Lopez, Senior Consultant, The Verden Group

Jose sat in on a webinar regarding the latest on the MU2 Rule. Here’s the scoop –

CMS has announced a Meaningful Use Proposed Rule of particular interest for practice attesting for Stage 2 in 2015. The proposed rule would streamline reporting requirements. To accomplish these goals, the rule proposes:

• Reducing the overall number of objectives to focus on advanced use of EHRs (moving from 20 objectives to a core of eight objectives);
• Removing measures that have become redundant, duplicative or have reached wide-spread adoption;
• Realigning the reporting period beginning in 2015, so hospitals would participate on the calendar year instead of the fiscal year (to allow hospitals and CAHs the same amount of time as eligible providers to fully implement new EHR technology); and
• Allowing a 90 day reporting period in 2015 to accommodate the implementation of these proposed changes in 2015 (for 2015 only, returning participants will have to demonstrate meaningful use for a full calendar year in 2016).

Most notably:

• Eligible providers would no longer be required to demonstrate that five percent of their patients had electronically viewed, downloaded or transmitted their personal health information using a certified EHR. Instead, eligible providers would only have to demonstrate that at least one patient had done so (as Jose says in the video above!)
• Similarly, providers would no longer have to show that five percent of patients had sent a message using a certified EHR’s direct messaging capability. Instead, providers would only be required to demonstrate that those capabilities had been fully enabled during the reporting period.

There is a 60-day public comment period for this proposed rule, with comments due by June 9, 2015. The team here applauds the changes in this proposed rule and is in full support of its approval!